Immorally making $5,000

[TheMyffic]

I was hoping for a difficult moral dilemma, but "do unto others" pretty much solves this one.

You could start the conversation with, "You have something you don't know is valuable, and I'd LIKE a finders fee for the discovery if you decide to sell it." I say LIKE, because he doesn't really owe you anything. The card is his whether he thinks it's worth 20c or $1000 0000. You could buy it cheaply and then sell it, of course. But that would be deception, and fail the "do unto others" test. Yes, you could give back some of the profit to him, with varying degrees of generosity, but then you're taking over the decision of who gets how much. It should be his to make.


In short, tell him. Think of anything you get as a bonus, but be prepared to gain nothing(financially - it's always funky to be funky ).


PS.Offer to sell it for him if you know the right channels. You might be able to negotiate a (bigger?)cut.

 

[Vausch]

He did offer you free reign to have all the cards, so take the card but tell him and give him a cut if you sell it. It was his generosity that led to this find, so it's a gesture to the strength of your friendship.

 

[Ishigami]

Tell him and negotiate a share.
After all the item is worthless without the knowledge of its uniqueness therefore you should have a nice incentive for him to share the profit to a certain degree.
Probably not 50/50 but something in the range of 75/25.

Would be my solution.
If nothing else you will find out what kind of friend you have? granted you are not the first dick in this relationship.

 

[uchytjes]

Heres what you do: Feign knowledge of what the card is worth, but say that you'll split any profit gained with the guy 50/50. Next, you find a buyer for the highest price you can get. Now, you confirm whether or not your friend/customer wants to sell it at that price or keep the card. Then, you sell it and split the money. It is both a nice little surprise for the guy and a boon to him and you.

 

[Denamic]

Reminds me of when I had a hand-painted one of a kind hockey card. Was worth hundreds of dollars. My mom threw all of my cards away, because she thought I no longed needed them. I had several other rare cards, too. All in all, the value was probably in the thousands. Better yet, she threw away my 8-bit Nintendo along with them. Ever since, there's been an absolute ban against her ever touching anything I own ever again.

 

[Buffoon1980]

He said you can have 'any and all of the cards'? Then they're yours, to do with as you wish. However, that doesn't absolve you from moral considerations. If you don't give him a cut, and I think up to 50% would be fair, then I think that would be the act of a douche.

Hypothetically, of course.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Personally, I would sell it (assuming there are more than one, I would sell one and hoard the other; at least until the artist who made the thing has died). That's just me though: if you're a decent human being (which you seem to be) then I would tell the guy about it. Maybe there is a second and maybe he could be persuaded to give you the second. Alternatively, the collective value of those cards could exceed the 5K so you could be looking at a situation where he appraises the collection and sells that; leaving you with the one valuable card.

 

[Thaluikhain]

You should most definitely tell him it's valuable.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

You tell him about it. It would be nice if the offer still stands and you can get a bunch of other cards to, you know, actually play with?

After all, you refer to him as a friend. Friends don't rip off their friends - and if they do, they're not friends. Simple.

 

[Amaror]

If you've an ounce of integrity or class, you tell him. If you're a greedy money-grubbing jerk, you just pocket it. Its a pretty black and white issue, no gray area.
Now, the real kicker here is that its a scenario where you don't have a clue if the owner knows what he has, but given that the owner (the brother) played MtG, its quite possible he knows how much its worth and A)doesn't care or B) is testing your integrity.
In a real world situation its hard to believe that a former player wouldn't know that a Black Lotus is worth money, serious money. Its more likely that a deceased player's kin has a box of their cards with no real clue what they're worth.
Either way, for integrity's sake you're a better person for speaking up.

Maybe he's not a player as in: Player in tournaments. Maybe he's a player in: Enjoy a few rounds of Magic fun with his friends. I know i am in the later and i would guess that a majority of magic the gathering players are in the later.
Although you might not call us magic the gathering players.

Edit: My point being: When your in the latter, it's pretty possible that you DON'T know how much a card is worth.

 

[Kaymish]

hell take the money and run i would
well ok i probably wouldn't only because i couldn't keep from twirling my metaphorical mustache with glee at the thought of the booty and i probably wouldn't be able to get off my arse to sell the damn thing but otherwise i totally would

anyway what i am getting at is you all ways gotta look out for yourself first then look out for your buddy shout him a nice gift in return for his nice "Gift" of the cards's he is your mate after all sure he cant be trusted as much as you can trust yourself and hes probably gonna screw you over one day but in the mean time hes your mate

 

[O maestre]

Take the card, sell it but say you made the money some other way, like the award prize for douchiest friend in an unrelated incident.

 

[Odbarc]

Sell it, share 50/50.

 

[SpAc3man]

Take it dude. You can have ANY card. That is what he said.

 

[wickedmonkey]

Wow... a lot of folks willing to shaft their friends for 5k...

Tell him dude.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Hypothetically...yea.

Yea you should tell him, who knows he might reward you for it.

 

[ABLb0y]

Let him sell it. It's his card, you don't really have a right to sell it.
What I'd do is tell him about it and then maybe push my luck and ask him for half, as he wouldn't know how valuable it as if not for me.

 

[chinangel]

i am a bad person. I would be keeping it.

 

[Legion]

Tell them while having a small selfish part of me hoping that they'd give me a part of the profits by way of thanks. I could not keep something like that to myself as it'd go against moral compass, but I am not above hoping they'd remember that if I had kept quiet they'd have gotten nothing. Not that I'd ask for a cut, I'd leave it down to them.